My Weekly Books and Films Update
Linking up with:
Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)
HAPPY THINGS:
1. Waking up to sunny days.
2. Empanadas - Argentina style, delicious!
3. Participating in an annual fundraiser event - Artseed Art-a-thon (details & donation)
I will be working on embroidery art pieces. A couple will be craftivism related for Badass Herstory
Review:
by Robin Daniels
-Romance, YA
-courtesy of the author -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
EXCITING! I just finished book 4 in this series, Perfectly Misunderstood and realized I had not yet read this one. The lovely author was wonderful to send this for my review :-)
Library:
by GG
-Graphic Novel, Literary, Canada
Amazon | Goodreads
GG's artwork and instagram got me curious to check this out along with other comics available online.
by Seicho Matsumoto
translated by Louise Heal Kawai
-Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Japan
Amazon | Goodreads
INCLUDING this in my Japanese pt 2 (creepy) binge read next month.
Author event:
THE Bindery hosted a Q&A with journalist, author, Åsne Seierstad, featuring the release of Two Sisters. Got the scoop on how this was written compared to the issues and controversy that arose from the previously published The Bookseller of Kabul.
Side note: The Bindery is a cool multi-purpose events space and bookstore and part of The Booksmith. An unusual and interesting collection is housed here - The Arcana Project: a deep, highly inclusive array of books—fiction and nonfiction, from all over the world—presented in chronological order, by the date they were written. (details)
A Father, His Daughters, and Their Journey into the Syrian Jihad
by Åsne Seierstad
translated by Seán Kinsella
-Politics, Islam
Amazon | Goodreads
Two Sisters, by the international bestselling author Åsne Seierstad, tells the unforgettable story of a family divided by faith. Sadiq and Sara, Somali immigrants raising a family in Norway, one day discover that their teenage daughters, Leila and Ayan, have vanished—and are en route to Syria to aid the Islamic State. Seierstad’s riveting account traces the sisters’ journey from secular, social democratic Norway to the front lines of the war in Syria, and follows Sadiq’s harrowing attempt to find them.
Employing the same mastery of narrative suspense she brought to The Bookseller of Kabul and One of Us, Seierstad puts the problem of radicalization into painfully human terms, using instant messages and other primary sources to reconstruct a family’s crisis from the inside. Eventually, she takes us into the hellscape of the Syrian civil war, as Sadiq risks his life in pursuit of his daughters, refusing to let them disappear into the maelstrom—even after they marry ISIS fighters. Two Sisters is a relentless thriller and a feat of reporting with profound lessons about belief, extremism, and the meaning of devotion.
AND watched: in theatre for the SF International Film Festival (details)
Director: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
-Documentary, Bhutan | imdb | my rating: 5
The contrasting dreams of two generations clash within the microcosm of an ancient Buddhist monastery in Bhutan, when Gyembo an ordinary teenager is chosen as the next guardian of their family monastery by his father.
Loved the set location and introduction to this family although a sad story of the plight of the next guardian - struggles with the past and present ways of living.
Director: Bing Liu
-Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
Three young men bond together to escape volatile families in their Rust-Belt hometown. As they face adult responsibilities, unexpected revelations threaten their decade-long friendship.
BEAUTIFUL story of friendships and growing up in their Rust Belt hometown.
This screening included a Q&A with the director and producer. Great to find out the current status of the people in the documentary.
Le semeur (original title)
Director/Screenplay: Marine Francen
Screenplay: Jacques Fieschi, Jacqueline Surchat
Based on book by: Violette Ailhaud
Stars: Pauline Burlet, Géraldine Pailhas, Alban Lenoir
-Drama, France | imdb | my rating: 5
Violette is old enough to get married when her village in the Lower Alps is cruelly deprived of all its men by the repression that followed the republican uprising of December 1851. For the next two years, the village is completely cut off. The women swear an oath that if a man should come, he will become their shared husband, so that life may continue to flourish in each of their wombs.
DESIRE, lust and love are explored. Gorgeous countryside scenes.
This screening included a Q&A with the director. The emphasis on women's desire was her focus.
Jia nian hua (original title)
Director/Writer: Vivian Qu
Stars: Vicky Chen, Meijun Zhou, Ke Shi
-Drama, China | imdb | my rating: 5
In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are sexually assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working on reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she chooses to keep silence.
THE negative women's issues that are brought up in this film are inkeeping with the current frustrations experienced during the #metoo movement.
Director: Sandi Tan
Star: Jasmine Kin Kia Ng
-Documentary | imdb | my rating: 5
In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan and her friends Sophie and Jasmine shot Singapore's first indie-a road movie called "Shirkers"-with their enigmatic American mentor, Georges Cardona. Sandi wrote the script and played the lead, a killer named S. After shooting wrapped, Georges vanished with all the footage! 20 years later, the 16mm cans are recovered in New Orleans, sending Sandi-now a novelist in Los Angeles-on a new personal odyssey across two continents and many media: 16mm, digital, Hi8, Super8, slides, animation and handwritten letters. A kaleidoscopic punk rock ghost story!
DOCUMENTARY with a mystery and dashed hopes and dreams from the past. But the present and future look good.
Director/Writers: Jenny Suen, Christopher Doyle
Stars: Ranya Lee, Kin-Ping Leung, Michael Ning
-Drama, Hong Kong | imdb | my rating: 5
Living in a riverside shack in Hong Kong's last remaining fishing village, a teenager is told by her overprotective father that she must always protect herself from the sun. Believing that she is cursed, but buoyed by a curiosity that leads to friendships outside her immediate environment, she becomes a symbolic focal point for the filmmaker to dreamily explore Hong Kong's past, present, and future, aided by Christopher Doyle's intoxicating cinematography.
ARTSY feel with an aging historical site as a backdrop.
This screening included a Q&A with the director. The anxiety on Hong Kong's expiration date (in 2047) was a source of inspiration.
AND watched: on DVD
Kirschblüten - Hanami (original title)
-Drama, Romance, Germany, Japan | imdb | my rating: 5
After Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer.
GOT a load of cherry blossom visuals - beautiful. Butoh dancing plays a part in this story along with a visit to Mt. Fuji.
AND watched: in theatre (live)
FANTASTIC mashup of Shakespeare and The GoGo's with varied love themes in play. The Curran theatre usually creates a special button for the current show which I made sure to pick up as a souvenir.
Director: Michael Mayer
at the SF Curran Theatre
-Musical | website | my rating: 5
An inspired mash-up of posh and punk, HEAD OVER HEELS is an unpredictable Elizabethan romp about a royal family that must prevent an oracle’s prophecy of doom. In order to save their beloved kingdom, the family embarks on an extravagant journey where they are faced with mistaken identities, love triangles, sexual awakening and self-discovery.
Set to the iconic pop music of The Go-Go’s—including the hit songs “We Got The Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation” and many more— HEAD OVER HEELS delivers an experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Go!
* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently
Thanks for stopping by :-)
